In a split second, a party of a lifetime turned into a disaster.

Ten years ago, Formosa Fun Coast, a waterslide park about 45 minutes from downtown Taipei, was having a party called Color Play Asia. There were Hip Hop DJs and dancers, and everyone was throwing colored powder on each other. The lights of the stage got too hot and the powder in the air caught fire in an instant, killing 15 people and injuring nearly 500. It was a tragedy unlike any in Taiwan as people were carrying the dead and injured off in intertubes they had been using for the waterslides.

For the past decade, court cases have been winding their way through the system, and on Tuesday, February 25, the High Court found the New Taipei government and Tourism Administration liable for the explosion. The court ordered each plaintiff to receive US$91,000 for restitution. They said the park was built on land designated for agricultural use, and that after inspections, the park didn’t have the certification to host such events.

The event organizer was sentenced to five years in jail for negligent manslaughter and has been ordered to pay US$15 million to the victims.

[From Taipei Times]